Creature comforts: Knitted doll project warms the hearts of African children in need

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2007 at 4:34 AM

Throughout the South Shore, knitters have created hundreds of dolls for donation to Children Affected By HIV/AIDS.

By Suzette Martinez Standring

Baskets overflow with African Duduza dolls at The Snow Goose Yarn Shop in Milton. Knitted in the bright colors of the African landscape - red, yellow, green and turquoise - each dark face is stitched with a smile and made playful with unique details, such as dreadlocks, ribbons, ruffles and beads. The soft 6-inch dolls are bound for Africa as gifts to children whose lives have been ravaged by disease and genocide. In Africa, ‘‘Duduza’’ means ‘‘comfort.’’

Throughout the South Shore, knitters have created hundreds of dolls for donation to Children Affected By HIV/AIDS. A non-profit organization since 2004, it raises awareness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Namibia, South Africa and Rwanda and brings supplies, financial assistance, healthcare and vocational training to relieve the plight of affected children.

The charity’s founder and director, Susanna Grannis, a Vermont resident and Massachusetts native, traveled to Rwanda in December 2006 and first offered 200 dolls at the ‘‘Saturday Meeting’’ of the Amahoro (‘‘Peace’’) Association, a gathering of child-headed households. One thousand children showed up to get a doll. Older kids, even teenage boys, wanted one. Clearly, more were needed.

In response, doll-knitting projects spread throughout New England and Ann Selinger, a board member and Hingham resident, brought the idea to The Creative Stitch in Hingham. Since February Creative Stitch has collected about a thousand dolls, said owner Kristin Ross.

About 250 of those dolls were sent from The Snow Goose Yarn Shop in Milton, which launched its own project last spring through Lois Ferrazzi, a sales associate and knitting instructor, who was inspired by a visit to The Creative Stitch.

‘‘We had a tea party in April to bring knitters together and about 75 dolls were ‘born,’’’ said Ferrazzi, who reported bags of dolls continue to come in from Snow Goose customers.

The imaginative use of leftover yarn is inspiring. Both knitting stores offer a free pattern and serve as drop-off sites for finished dolls. For experienced knitters, a Duduza doll can take less than an hour to knit up and another hour to finish, said Nancy Douglass, 71, of Milton who has produced about 50 dolls for donation.

A novice knitter, 17-year old Molly Gilbert of Cohasset worked for six hours on one doll, but what fun it was. A junior at Cohasset High School, Molly started a knitting circle last February to create more dolls for donation. It quickly grew from eight to 30 friends. Every week since the group began, Melissa Castro, 16 of Cohasset, has brought in a bag of about 20 dolls knitted by her grandmother.

‘‘She must have made about 400 dolls,’’ said Molly.

At summer camp, Molly brought a Duduza doll she made for herself and got other kids interested in the project. Likening the doll to ‘‘a little Teddy Bear thing,’’ Molly imagines another child across the world sleeping with it every night like she did.

‘‘When I was holding it in my hands I could see what they would be seeing because they’d be doing the same thing and it probably would make them 10 times happier than me. I felt really good about myself,’’ she said.

It is more than 6,850 miles from the South Shore to Kigali, Rwanda, but the small dolls close the distance to a place where children have lost their parents to AIDS or war. There it is not uncommon for a teenager to head three or four combined households of smaller children. This past May, Grannis again returned to Rwanda with a suitcase filled with 800 dolls. More will be shipped in October.

Grannis described Rwanda’s destitute children as ‘‘poorer than any poor American you can imagine,’’ and she recalled handing out the dolls, a first and only toy, to orphans this past May.

‘‘We told the children, ‘keep them safe, give them a special name and to remember that they come as symbols of love and care from people far away who love you,’’’ said Grannis.

One little boy cradled a doll and named it ‘‘Mother.’’ Two toddlers, dressed in rags, stood timidly by the doorway. Upon receiving their dolls, the older sister tucked a doll, baby-style, into the back of her little sister’s T-shirt.

‘‘Because in Africa, children are wrapped with large pieces of cloth and carried on their mother’s back,’’ explained Grannis.

The Children Affected By HIV/AIDS does much more than offer solace through toys. It brings supplies, financial support, healthcare and education to 2,800 orphans in Rwanda. During a 2006 rural project, it distributed goats to poor families, despite local critics who told Grannis the project would not be sustainable because villagers would sell the animals.

‘‘We told the families ‘breed the goats for new kids so you can have something to rely on.’ That was a year ago. This year, I asked the leaders what happened and everyone had kept the goats and today the animals have increased by half,’’ said Grannis.

Duduza dolls are the cuddly ambassadors of the goodwill behind the hard work of salvaging lives. The number of dolls now exceeds suitcase size and requires direct shipment. For future distribution, plans are under way to have the dolls sent to Jeannette Kagame, the first lady of Rwanda and president of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS. Grannis requests that knitters donate $1 with each doll brought in to offset shipping.

Caring connects South Shore knitters with African children they may never meet.

‘‘I think about the child, whether it would be a girl or a boy, where they lived, what their life was like, what they did every day. What they would think of America or what they’d think when they got the doll. It was a fun process,’’ said Ferrazzi.

Suzette Martinez Standring is a freelance writer who lives in Milton. Contact her at suzmar@comcast.net .